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Lawson Wijesooriya grew up in a family of informal entrepreneurs and had founded her own day camp by the age of 15. Lawson came to Richmond, VA in 2004 with a heart for the inner city and a dream of living intentionally towards Martin Luther King’s vision for Beloved Community. She lives in an under-resourced area of the East End with her husband, two sons, adopted goddaughter, and another family of three. At her church, East End Fellowship, Lawson lives out her personal and professional life amongst a larger body of people with a heart for missions in the local community. Lawson graduated from the University of Virginia and enjoyed her study of Christian community development in the Political and Social Thought Program. From there, she traveled in the developing world for 6 months before returning to the U.S. to begin her career and to discern her move to Richmond. She was hired to coach the first public high school lacrosse team in the area, and she taught urban middle school children for three years before leaving her post to begin as Program Director of Blue Sky Fund in 2006. Blue Sky Fund is a local non-profit whose mission is to provide transformational experiences for urban youth through outdoor education. One year later, Lawson took over as the founding Executive Director. Highlighted as Mentor of the Year by Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine and honored as Style Weekly’s Top 40 under 40 in 2010, Lawson considers herself very fortunate to work with such tremendous children and see their lives transformed by the power of nature.